1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel metal complex-protein composite and a novel hydrogenation catalyst.
2. Description of the Prior Art
This application claims foreign benefit of the filing date under 35 U.S.C. 119 of Japan application 2003-310085, filed Sep. 2, 2003.
The inventor of the present invention has proposed metal complex-protein composites of manganese-Schiff base complexes inserted in a cavity of apomyoglobin (apo-Mb) by non-covalent bonding. Here apomyoglobin is obtained by liberating a heme from an oxygen storage protein, myoglobin (Mb). The inventor synthesized, for example, a metal complex-protein composite including a metal complex of manganese with N,N′-bis(salicylidene)-1,2-phenylenediamine kept in the cavity of apomyoglobin, and reported that such composites were useful for asymmetric oxidation reaction of thioanisole (the Proceedings of the 16th Biofunctional Symposium, ‘1S1-11 Construction of Artificial Enzyme by Insertion of Metal Complex into Apomyoglobin Cavity’ (published in September 2001).
The study of these metal complex-protein composites has just started, and no useful metal complex-protein composites for hydrogenation reaction have been reported so far.